Fantasy football is played by millions of fans each year and is growing in popularity at accelerating rates. Huge corporations, such as Yahoo, Walt Disney's ESPN, and CBS's Sportsline have set up elaborate websites to host the different types of leagues and are heavily competing to gain market share. In many cases, people can set up a league and play for free on these websites. Some sites offer premium fantasy packages for a fee that offer more services such as news, draft strategies and scouting reports about individual players as well as real-time stat updates.
However, several media companies are recognizing that it is more lucrative to not charge fantasy players since free games draw more traffic, and therefore, bring in more advertising revenue. Visa and General Motors' GMC unit have returned as main marketing sponsors for Yahoo's fantasy football. In order to compete, ESPN is stepping up its efforts to increase its fantasy presence. It launched a fantasy football TV show that airs on ESPN2. ESPN also offers fantasy advice through its magazine, radio shows and podcasts.
To get started in Fantasy Football, a group of participants, normally between 8 to 12 people, may set up a league from one of the numerous websites where they will then pick individual players from professional teams to represent their team. These players are drawn from all 32 teams in the NFL. Each team select a roster of professional players from several different positions and from several different teams. One team may have, for example, the quarterback from the New England Patriots, a running back from the New York Giants, and a wide receiver from the Cleveland Browns. A team selects a full compliment of players (usually between 15-25 players) during a draft or auction process. Once this has been completed, each participant, referred to as an owner, has acquired their Fantasy Football team roster.
Each week, every player fills out their rosters depending upon the rules of the league. Typically, a player will start one quarterback, two running backs, three wide receivers or tight ends, one kicker, and one defense. This may change depending upon the type of league and rules that were established. The most common kind of league will have head to head match-ups between the players each week. For example, the starting roster of one team will face off against the starting roster of another team. The team with the most points for that week wins.
The next week, those two teams will play different teams. This will continue until the season is over. Usually, towards the end of the season, the teams with the best Win-Loss Record make their league playoffs. The winner of the playoffs is considered the champion. The points come from the NFL's players' personal statistics for that week. The statistics are usually based upon your players scoring touchdowns, yards rushed, yards passed, yards received, field goals, and defensive turnovers and sacks. Each statistic is given a particular point value, which are added up to determine what number of fantasy points each NFL player receives. Leagues will sometimes have a slightly different point allocation system based upon the above criteria; however, the rankings are based on Win-Loss Records.